Aldo van Eyck (; 16 March 1918 – 14 January 1999) was a Dutch

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

. He was one of the most influential protagonists of the architectural movement Structuralism.

Family

He was born in Driebergen,

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

, a son of

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

, critic,

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

and philosopher Pieter Nicolaas van Eyck or van Eijk and wife Nelly Estelle Benjamins, a woman of Sephardic origin born and raised in Suriname. His brother was poet, artist and art restorer Robert Floris van Eyck or van Eijk. He was married to Hannie van Rooijen, also an architect. She assisted him in several projects.

Early life and career

His family moved to the United Kingdom in 1919 and he was educated at

Sidcot School Sidcot School is a British co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils, associated with the Religious Society of Friends. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The school is based in the Mendip Hills near the village of ...

, Somerset, from 1932 to 1935, after which he finished his secondary school in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

between 1935 and 1938, and went to study at the ETH Zurich. He graduated in 1942, after which he remained in Switzerland until the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, where he entered the circle of many other avant-garde artists around Carola Giedion-Welcker, wife of

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

Sigfried Giedion Sigfried Giedion (sometimes misspelled Siegfried Giedion; 14 April 1888, Prague – 10 April 1968, Zürich) was a Bohemian-born Swiss historian and critic of architecture. His ideas and books, '' Space, Time and Architecture'', and ''Mech ...

. He taught at the

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

Academy of Architecture from 1954 to 1959 and he was a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

at the

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

from 1966 to 1984. He also was editor of the architecture magazine ''Forum'' from 1959 to 1963 and in 1967.

Later career

A member of CIAM and then in 1954 a co-founder of " Team 10", Van Eyck lectured throughout Europe and northern America propounding the need to reject Functionalism and attacking the lack of originality in most post-war Modernism. Van Eyck was as co-editor of the Dutch magazine ''Forum'' between 1959 and 1963, alongside Herman Hertzberger and

Jaap Bakema Jacob Berend "Jaap" Bakema (8 March 1914 – 20 February 1981) was a Dutch modernist architect, notable for design of public housing and involvement in the reconstruction of Rotterdam after the Second World War. Born in Groningen, Bakema studi ...

. This helped publicise the "Team 10" call for a return to humanism within architectural design. Van Eyck received the

RIBA The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

Royal Gold Medal The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture. It is gi ...

in 1990. He died at

Loenen aan de Vecht Loenen aan de Vecht (or just Loenen) is a village in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It was the main village in the former municipality of Loenen. Since 2011 it has become part of the newly formed municipality of Stichtse Vecht. It lies about 10&nb ...

, aged 80.

Selected works

* Design for village of

Nagele Nagele is a village in the Dutch province of Flevoland. It is a part of the municipality of Noordoostpolder, and lies about 10 km south of Emmeloord. History Nagele was designed by the architectural team "De 8" between 1948 and 1954. The ...

, Noordoostpolder, 1948–1954 * Housing for the Elderly, Slotermeer, Amsterdam, 1951–1952 * Amsterdam Orphanage, Amsterdam, 1955–1960 * Primary Schools, Nagele, Noordoostpolder, 1954–1956 * Hubertus House, Amsterdam, 1973–1978 *

ESA , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

- ESTEC restaurant and conference centre,

Noordwijk Noordwijk () is a town and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water and had a population of in . On 1 January 2019, the former municipality of Noordwij ...

, 1984–1990

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eyck, Aldo 1918 births 1999 deaths Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne members Delft University of Technology faculty Dutch Jews ETH_Zurich_faculty Jewish architects Van Eyck, Aldo People from Driebergen-Rijsenburg Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal Structuralists Wolf Prize in Arts laureates 20th-century Dutch architects